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Category: Cameras

While 3D tv’s didn’t seem to take off, 3D printing sure has. And once thing leads to another. Now 3D Scanning is getting kind of hot. There’s a project on Kickstarter that is promoting a 3D Scanner for use on mobile devices. It can also do regular USB so it can be used on other devices or home-brew applications as well.

The device seems to be battery-powered, and uses infra-red LEDs and a camera to measure distance and scan. The range is 40 cm to 3.5 meters and promotes an accuracy of 1%. The current things demonstrated are a room scanner app that lets you take dimensions of a room by panning the camera around. An object scanner that can let you make a 3D model (for use in CAD or 3D Printing). And a virtual reality game.

Cool technology, it just means that this type of stuff is getting closer to being a cheap commodity for regular users.

It seems pretty obvious that this would happen when the camera module hit the market, that someone would make a camera. The build is still pretty sleek. This camera was built as part of an advertising contest ( for sprite, duh ) which the builders incorporated very well aside from painting it green with a sprite logo. It also watermarks the pictures taken with a sprite logo.

The sprite is equipped with a rechargable battery, an audiable usb speaker (playing a branded click when photos are taken), a camera module, a pi, and python.

The guys over at SuperHouse have really done their research. In the video, they explore just about every option you have for powering your network cameras. From the obvious, to the not-so-obvious. I’ve seen hacks before, and done myself, which is simply use the unused pair of wires to basically ‘extend’ your power adapter on a high amperage bus, then split again back at the camera. But what I haven’t tried is using a real POE injector, then using a small 5v switching regulator at the base. The beauty of doing it this way, is you avoid the dropout you are going to occur by simply running 5v on the other pair especially over long distances. In the video most of the time is spent doing this option, which is really neat because basically they take a really cheap foscam ip camera and essentially turn it into a more POE camera.

Another really green idea would be to cut the wires completely, and I do mean all of them. Use a solar cell, and a battery and power your WIFI camera from that. You would obviously need to be in a place where you could get ample sunshine during the day to charge the battery for nighttime use, but the concept is solid.